Cobalt Red
by Siddharth Kara · first published 2022
13mentions
4recommended by
9HN commenters
2023–2026first – last mentioned
44% recommend56% neutral
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…on a regular basis. That's before you get into the slave labor, near slave labor, and "I Can't Believe It's Not Slave Labor" that goes into pretty much all our modern devices - from the cobalt on up (Cobalt Red by Kara is a good read here, Dying for an iPhone is relevant, and there's no shortage of others). It's nasty, and behind every promise to do better seems to be some mechanism or another to further obfuscate…
on “Doug Rushkoff Is Ready to Renounce the Digital Revolution” ↗…sometimes they do video transcode or other things. When it's a dark winter day, I use a lot less energy. And before getting too excited about the state of lithium energy storage, grab yourself a copy of Cobalt Red by Kara. It's an exceedingly disturbing read on the state of cobalt mining in DRC.
on “Degrowth and the Monkey's Paw” ↗…is used in common lithium battery chemistries, is mostly sourced from the DRC (Congo), much of it under terrible conditions: forced labour, child labour, and rampant environmental degradation. The book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives [1] is a real eye-opener if you haven’t read it. Fascinating and deeply disturbing. 1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60784614-cobalt-red
on “Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production” ↗Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara is a fascinating if horrifying long read which looks at the toll cobalt mining takes on the people and environment in DRC.
on “Mine. Mine. Mine. How One Corrupt Billionaire Kicked Off the Global Cobalt Spree” ↗…movements" of the past decade or so - blowing up a mountain for the minerals is fine, as long as it's carbon neutral. If you'd like to "never want another mobile computing device again," I suggest the book Cobalt Red, on the lies and deceit active in the DRC related to cobalt mining out there (basically, the nutshell is that regardless of what anyone claims to have done to improve the conditions, they've "worked around…
on “Whatever happened to the zero waste movement?” ↗…of books to quickly give a friend a few recommendations based on their interest. I find listening to books far easier but they have to be non-fiction (or a reread of fiction) and not too complicated. Cobalt Red, Outlaw Oceans and There Are No Accidents were all great listens from this past year. But it's the only way I get through the 2hr minimum of exercise my dog needs a day.
on “Read fewer books and feel better about it” ↗It's slave labor (or close to slave labor) during production (Cobalt Red, Dying for an iPhone are some good overview books on the matter, though you can dive in further if you care), it's working against the "owner" of the device (who often doesn't actually have much in the…
on “The Toxic Effects of Electronic Waste in Accra, Ghana (2019)” ↗…depths of pollution and third world degredation. The extraction of rare earth minerals for our electronically surveilled and controlled future comes at a terrible cost, as Siddharth Kara's new book "Cobalt Red: How The Blood of The Congo Powers Our Lives" outlines in excruciating detail. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/cobalt-red/ No one wins in this race to the bottom. If you are contemplating a BEV I would…
on “Does the world have enough lithium to move to electric vehicles?” ↗No, it's clearly a heads-up for the book 'COBALT RED: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives'. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cobalt-Red-Blood-Congo-Powers/dp/12... Quote "The harsh realities of cobalt mining in the Congo are an inconvenience to every…
on “The bloody truth about cobalt mining in the Congo and how it powers our lives” ↗…[Artisinal and Small Mine] production has reached a record low, with ASM accounting for an estimated 2% of total cobalt supply from the DRC in 2024."[1] Which conflicts with the NPR article, "In his new book, Cobalt Red, Kara writes that much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called 'artisanal' miners..."[2] Unfortunately, nowhere in the NPR article does it give a hard number to compare like the Cobalt Institute,…
on “The US Had a Big Battery Boom Last Year” ↗…[Artisinal and Small Mine] production has reached a record low, with ASM accounting for an estimated 2% of total cobalt supply from the DRC in 2024."[1] Which conflicts with the NPR article, "In his new book, Cobalt Red, Kara writes that much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called 'artisanal' miners..."[2] Unfortunately, nowhere in the NPR article does it give a hard number to compare like the Cobalt Institute,…
on “'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy (2023)” ↗…materials were obtained using modern techniques and heavy equipment, and which ones were obtained by hand through brutalized labor practices. I caught an interview on NPR recently[1] with the author of "Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives" [1]: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893...
on “Study links adoption of EV with less air pollution and improved health” ↗Good. I've been reading "Cobalt Red" How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives and it is deplorable how the Congolese people are treated. Maybe they'll discover or manufacture a material that can replace Cobalt that has the same thermal…
on “Fewer people are buying electric cars in the US” ↗